US Embassy Libya Reopens With Ambassador Cretz

Our man in Tripoli who became our first ambassador to Libya in 36 years in 2008, who departed Libya before the revolution reportedly due to WikiLeaks, has recently returned to that country. With an official flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. Embassy compound in Tripoli on September 22, 2011, the U.S. Embassy-in-exile left its makeshift office on the Potomac and returned to its home on the edge of the desert.

We previously noted that Joan Polaschik, the deputy chief of mission who ran the embassy after
Ambassador Cretz left the country in 2010, and who led the
evacuation of personnel/American citizens earlier this year, returned earlier to Tripoli with a small team the week of September 9.

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene A. Cretz stands at the podium

during a flag raising ceremony for the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Libya,
on
September 22, 2011.
[State Department photo/ Public Domain]